Vikings Talks with Jim Harbaugh Deemed ‘Exploratory’
Dustin Baker
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A gridiron grenade detonated on the Minnesota Vikings search on Saturday as reporting indicated the franchise was interested in Jim Harbaugh for the next head coach. Harbaugh is the current head coach of the Michigan Wolverines.
ProFootballTalk.com tweeted the interview occurred on Saturday night, broadening the Vikings search with a household name.
On Sunday morning, Ian Rapoport gently tapered that terminology, calling the interest by the Vikings “exploratory.”
And the Vikings search can reasonably be considered down to its final stretch. Extending into next week, DeMeco Ryans (49ers), Kevin O’Connell (Rams), and Harbaugh, of course, seem to be the last men standing. Unceremoniously, Raheem Morris (Rams) and Todd Bowles (Buccanneers) fell off the team’s radar, evidently.
Jim Harbaugh is intense, changing cultures right and left upon his arrival. He’s not for everybody. The Vikings implied after firing Mike Zimmer three weeks ago that a collaborator was needed for this head coach pursuit. Well, Harbaugh does that, but he’s an acquired taste — especially for the media — while players apparently love the man.
The important part about Harbaugh? He wins everywhere. Harbaugh led the San Francisco 49ers to three consecutive NFC Championships from 2011 to 2013, with a cumulative 44-19 (.695) record. He owns the fifth-best winning percentage in NFL history among all head coaches — and that should be good enough for the Vikings (or any organization).
Interestingly, the probability of keeping Kirk Cousins as QB1 likely spikes with a Harbaugh hire. In San Francisco, he won with Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick, two passers not known for elite performance. Cousins is damn good but not quite elite. Cousins’ current contract places him as the NFL’s eight-highest-paid passer, so Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has a choice to make soon on trading Cousins or extending him to relieve the astronomical $45 million cap hit in 2022. Harbaugh can probably win with Cousins and his clockwork 4,000+ passing yards and 30+ touchdowns.
In Harbaugh’s NFL career as a head coach, he’s 7-2 against NFC North teams, only losing to the Vikings in 2012 and Chicago Bears in 2014 — not a bad resume talking point during the “exploratory” Vikings chats.
Harbaugh is 58 — the same age as Mike Zimmer when he coached his first game for the Vikings in 2014.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
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